Hello!

And welcome to my website. It's nice to see you. My name is Alex Horne and I'm a comedian and a writer who likes to write and perform things about things I like. Please feel free to have a wander round the site and if you want to get in touch, click the contact button on the left.

Meanwhile, this is officially the homepage so I'll quickly tell you what I'm up to at the moment:

FIRST UP - Thanks to everyone who came to WORDWATCHING at the Edinburgh Festival. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did (and if you're still struggling with the FLYER CROSSWORD, click HERE for the answers).

I will be touring the show, but not until Autumn 2009 for reasons I'll explain below. In the meantime, if you're interested in words you can still get involved. If you or anyone you know has ever invented a word (ideally that has caught on and stuck around) please email me the details...

So, BIRDWATCHING news. It was announced during the Edinburgh Festival that I am going to be writing a book about my birdwatching year. In fact, it's pretty much written. It's called BIRDWATCHINGWATCHING and will be out early in 2009, published by Virgin. I'm very excited. I'll then be touring BIRDWATCHING show and will post the dates as soon as I can. Like I say, I'm very excited.

In the meantime I'm also writing up WORDWATCHING into a book (also to be published by Virgin - this time in the autumn of 2009 - again followed by a tour). If you do have any verbal gardening input, please get in touch as soon as possible so I can at least try to use it in the story (which, very briefly, is that for the past three years I've been trying to get a word into the dictionary. It's gone... quite well. If you want to know more do email me or, better, save up a little honk and buy the book next year).

Here's one review written by Kate Copstick in The Scotsman. For more, click here.

"This is a joyous show for word-lovers everywhere. Horne is right back on form, and on a mission to get a new word into the dictionary. This is his best show since Making Fish Laugh made everyone laugh.

It is beautifully structured, endearingly honest, and features not just one but three perfectly synchronised Alex Hornes. Horne is making good progress, he tells us, in his attempt to become the "Oldest Man in the World", but that is very much work in progress. Meanwhile, he is working, with a secret cabal, on infiltrating a cluster of neologisms into the English language. He is doing quite well, with the help of the press (academic and tabloid), Countdown and the internet.

Such was the impact of this show on me that I have dedicated the next section of this review to furthering the introduction of Alex's quest: at the moment, Alex Horne is being linguistically beaten by Beyoncé – who got "bootilicious" into the dictionary. I apologise for the fact that you will only fully understand what follows if you go and see his show. But once you have, you will appreciate that, in reading this, you have helped the English language grow. And got Alex a place in history. Please feel free to quote the following lines; Alex will thank you for it: "As a reviewer, one never actually has to put one's honk where one's mouth is. If a show is completely games we can throw our paddles up and call it a load of bollo, safe in the knowledge it will not be over till the honest lady sings."

Horne is an engagingly smart man, a sort of Dave Gorman of the intellect. He has created a genuinely smart show. He not only entertains, amuses and impresses, but he makes you want to join in.

Don't be a pratdigger, go and see the show."

In other, older news, after an amazing, exhausting and educational twelve months, Owen Powell and I finally finished our WORLD IN ONE CITY  project. Thanks to appearances on BBC World, Al Jazeera and Channel 4 news, and an awful lot of help from our friends, Rachels and strangers, we eventually found and chatted to people from 189 of the UN's 192 countries. We think that's some sort of record. Click the link above to read all about it and listen out for news of future plans to get all these people in one place at one time for the best global gathering ever some time later this year.

After a typically frantic Edinburgh last year, I'm also now working with Tim Key and Mark Watson on a BBC pilot of the divvy quiz show We Need Answers and am still occasionally doing the Birdwatching and Latin shows in theatres and schools around the country.